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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Favorite Film Dresses of My Impressionable Youth

One of my favorite inspiration books is Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design. (A fabulous book, by the way.)I was flipping though it recently and it got me thinking back to movies that I loved as a kid. I adored musicals and any other especially theatrical films, and when I look back on these beloved films, I always remember the dresses. (Starts early, eh?) So here's a little trip down my pop culture memory lane: my favorite film dresses of my childhood. Won't you join me?

Sleeping Beauty

My early tastes were simple: sparkly ballgowns! The final dress in Disney's Sleeping Beauty (which changes from pink to blue and back again, you may recall) was a definite favorite. I could never decide if I liked it best in pink or blue! Ah, the dilemmas of childhood.

Mary Poppins

I revered Julie Andrews (still do, actually). I'm hard-pressed to pick a favorite film of hers, but the costumes in Mary Poppins definitely win out. And the red and white dress above is the most beautiful of all! (According to my inner five-year-old, that is.)

My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is filled with beautiful costumes, but this black and white ensemble is arguably the most fantastic. My younger self did not catch the satire in its over-the-topness; I thought it was just right. And I still think those black and white stripes are a touch of genius.

Pollyanna

I'm sorry, was there a moral to this film? I totally missed it because I was too busy looking at the clothes. This one has it all: a fabulous shopping spree, adorable boots, and great sailor dresses.

Pretty Woman

Whew, that was quite a shift in subject matter, wasn't it? I had to put this one right after Pollyanna, because they actually remind me of each other: two poor girls get, ahem, "adopted" by rich folk, taken on the best shopping montages ever, and then live happily ever after. I wasn't allowed to see this movie until my later teens. Yeah, yeah, prostitution is adult subject matter. Again, I'm just here for the clothes! I loved her dress at the races best of all. Matching hat alert!

Clueless

A great fashion movie!I'm sad to say that this film inspired more fashion disasters for me than fashion successes. (Anyone else try to emulate the thigh-high and mini trend? That ensemble screams "working girl" way more than anything Julia Roberts wore in the aforementioned movie!) But it was a fashion moment. So much so that Calvin Klein recently brought back the white mini dress that was the centerpiece of an entire scene ("Cher, what are you wearing?" "A dress!" "Says who?" "Calvin Klein!"). It can be yours for $915.

I suppose that's enough from me (though the fact that I keep thinking of other examples hints at a second post on this topic in the future). How about you? I'd love to hear your favorite film dresses from your childhood! Don't be shy.

81 comments:

I loved the dress of the good witch in "Wizard of Oz", all pink and sparkly and huge. One of my Barbies had a similar dress. And growing up in Germany I loved all the pretty costumes in the Czech fairy tale movies that were on Tv in the former GDR. I always wished to be a princess when I saw them.

Clueless was the first movie I got to see without my parents and I definitely did the knee high tights/mini skirt combo in 6th grade - to my D.A.R.E. graduation nonetheless!! Probably about the only time I was "in" on a major fashion trend :)

This might be more indicative of my age than I'd care for it to be, but growing up my favorite dresses were those in Sleepy Hollow (the one with Ricci and Depp...hey, I was 10, it counts). Something about corsets have always intrigued me and made me long for that silhouette.

My Fair Lady was a favorite of mine too--I'd still love to have half the dresses Audrey wore in the movie. ;) lol. I think my main fashion influences growing up were mainly old movies--the same thing that inspires me now! Oh, and the "Anne of Green Gables" mini series and "Road to Avonlea" spin off that was on tv in the late 80s/early 90s. Those made me fall head over heels in love with the Edwardian era--the romantic looks continue to inspire me (and creating the perfect Gibson Girl pompadour continues to elude my hairdressing skills!).

You pegged two of my favorites - Mary Poppins (though my fave was the red coat she wore on her day off), and the polka dot dress in Pretty Woman. I actually found a silk in the same colors and made myself a skirt/shell that looks just like it. I still wear that outfit. Without a hat.

Unbelievable, you have once again managed to write about something that feels like it was picked right out of my own head. I would have picked the same dresses if I had written this post. My number one dress is the horse racing costume from My Fair Lady. I would just die to get the chance to costume that show.

Anne of Green Gables was a big one for me too - part of me still loves puffed sleeves and wants to marry Gilbert Blythe.

The costumes for My Fair Lady are stunning; Cecil Beaton won an Oscar for them! But they didn't grab me for me, if you know what I mean. I drool over them, but don't want to wear them.

My childhood was somewhat lacking in the tv department, but my dressing up box was awesome - lots of fifties crinolines and all my mother's old 70s romantical nightgowns with heaps of lace and trim and billowy sleeves. That has definitely coloured my adult taste, a lot.

Definitely Mary Poppins and the Pretty Woman polo dress, but my absolute fave is the black and white dress worn by Grace Kelly in Rear Window, not to mention the froth of nightgown in her Mark Cross attache case.

other than pretty woman (i never saw it) those were movies i loved for the costumes as a child too. sleeping beauty was the first movie i ever remember watching, and while i had the same color dilema as you did, i always liked it better in blue. :)

not only was that horse race scene in my fair lady visually stunning, it was quite humorous as well.

and i will never ever forget going to see clueless in the theater, and going shopping to contempo casuals immediately afterwards. too funny!

As a child, hands down Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I was convinced if I had that yellow dress I would be a real princess.As an adult. Seven Year Itch. Everything Marylin Monroe puts on in that movie is delicious. Also, Audrey Hepburn. Mostly in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' but really anything I've ever seen her wear. Ever.

I thought for sure the dress Anna wore while dancing with the King of Siam, from the original Anna and the King, would have made your list. :) I can not even begin to calculate the amount of fabric that woman was spinning around with! ---- And I too LOVE Anne of Green Gables. Did you all know there is a book, Before Green Gables? All about Anne's life before she came to PEI. :)

Three words: West Side Story. I don't know if this counts as "child" since I fell in love with this movie at 15, and I'm only 19 now, but I want all of Anita/Maria's dresses especially the lavender one Anita wears to the dance. Did you see all the pretty ruffles on the inside of the skirt when she lifted it? Love.

I loved the pretty woman wardrobe too! I can't remember very well, but isn't she rocking the suit with SHORTS and pumps in the end where George tries to get some?? Ah - and the red dress - it made me think I could wear red too! My hair is close in color to hers.

Other than pretty woman, movies that influenced me (sadly) in the wardrobe area were - Pretty in Pink (I can't believe I didn't start sewing clothes until later in life!!), the lost boys (good LORD I loved the gypsie look!!), When harry met sally (i know, right? But whenever I see that movie now I'm reminded of trying to get some of meg ryan's looks together - black tights, shorts and red sweater especially. And the tweed trousers), this one is wierd but Kim Basinger's wardrobe in 9 1/2 weeks was perfect 80's to die for and I LOVED it!!, a fleeting love of annie hall but I really couldn't carry off the tie-look, and this isn't a movie - but Katrin mentioned barbies and while I really wasn't into clothes as a kid, I did have barbies and to this DAY I think that my love of tightly fitted clothing is related to the great satisfaction i got snapping Barbie's tight dresses on!

My parents are old movie buffs--we got one of the first VCRs in the 80s, and my dad set out to collect everything. (There are somewhere around 500 movies in my dad's collection.) Which means that anything they put Natalie Wood as a little girl were dresses that I wanted. Later in the 80s, I was in love with the dress Sarah wears in Labyrinth. And I always loved Cinderella's ballgown and wedding gown!

when i was a kid in the 80s i was allowed to watch DALLAS with Pricilla Presley and Victoria Principle and of course Charlene Tilton. I wanted everything that those women wore. Any wonder why now I like the 40s? HELLO..the 80s was the 40s remix!

Oh! The dance dress in The King and I still makes me swoon! I love this movie and recently got to see it in HD...it was like seeing it for the first time, so many details! I encourage folks to go re-watch their old favorites. I didn't think Anna's gown could look any better, but it did.

Mine, strangely, was 'Clue' - the one with Tim Curry? Oh, to be Miss Scarlet. Or Jessica Rabbit. Luckily, I also liked the girly, southern-ness of 'Fried Green Tomatoes' and 'Steel Magnolias', so kept my inner femme fatale under wraps. 'Roman Holiday' was another biggie, I love the way she changes her whole outfit with scarf placement.

It was fun to see this look back on impressionable fashions from someone that is my age. :) Pretty Woman and Clueless were both high on the fashion scale for me, too. I still love that whiney voice she used for the "Calvin Klein" line. So great.

And, I'm not sure if I should be embarassed to admit this or not, but Dirty Dancing was a biggie for me, too - both for, well, the *dancing* and the clothes. I wanted her pink dress from the last scene SO BAD!!! Hell, I still want that dress!

Oooh how exciting - including the comments - I have been having Pretty in Pink memories recently myself - & fave film of all time Gone with the Wind - it has to be the dress that Scarlett makes out of curtains for visiting Rhett in gaol...

I actually did a short post on films that inspire me to create- http://tartdeco.blogspot.com/2010/06/movies-to-inspire.html

In it are listed most of the movies that I fell in love with when I was a kid. I would have to say that the 3 movies that inspired me most though when I was younger were Singin' in the Rain, Funny face and Pretty in Pink.

Since I love old movies, I'll go back a few more decades: everything Ingrid Bergman wore in Notorious and Casablanca is fabulous. Also the clothes in the original version of The Women; the costuming and corsets in Richard Lester's The three (and four) Musketeers (with Richard Chamberlin, Oliver Reed and Michael York); Lauren Bacall's clothes in To have and Have Not; All of Grace Kelly's clothes in Rear Window and To catch a Thief; and , everything Faye Dunaway wore in the original Thomas Crown Affair. Yum!

I looooved the style in Clueless. I was 10 or 11 when the movie came out and my mom bought me a Clueless inspired outfit. It consisted of a button down long sleeve white shirt, a red v-neck sweater vest, a plaid mini skirt, just above the knee white knee socks and black patent leather high heel (not too high!) It was cute, not over the top or streetwalker-ish like Cher's Calvin Klein dress.

I remember being in LOVE with the Cinderella dress, but not the blue one the Godmother gave her, gag. The pink one with bows the mice and birds made. (Perhaps my inner seamstress was appreciative of their handiwork).

Also, Grace Kelly's dress in Rear Window with the black bodice and poofy skirt. Heaven. (On a side note, there is a new Grace Kelly biography with AMAZING pictures of her in all her fashion perfection).

I grew up in the seventies watching films from the 30's and 40's. I loved all the snazzy suits with matching hats, gloves, and handbags. And all the amazing evening gowns with matching gloves, handbag and cape.

I was also a BIG Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly fan. But I think they both possessed such exquisite poise they could make a sack look glamorous!

I once had an idea of doing a blog series like this, but it just seemed too daunting as my idea was a post per outfit Perhaps I'll do a list instead? Mine however are outfits that influenced what I have worn and still hope to wear one day. Thanks for reminding me of it.

I have a picture of Kate Winslet's light blue shift dress in Revolutionary Road sitting on my ironing board with a chunk of brown linen, waiting for me to draft the top, right now. I even have fancy embroidery thread to boot for the topstitching. I fell for the dress so hard when I watched the movie that I sketched it out right then and missed part of the movie. Probably good I had already read the book.

Many mentioned above plus Grace Kelly's blue-grey chiffon and candy stripe dress in High Society, oh and the Grecian style outfit she wears in the pool scene too in that film. I had the great joy of seeing the dress in the Grace Kelly exhibition at V&A, London, apparently she was given her film wardrobe, what a job!

Slightly off/on-topic but one of my favourite dresses of the exhibit was the first I saw, handmade by Grace from a commercial sewing pattern. That dress has such an impact, it makes her feel real and less extraordinary and it sells the fairytale that draws us into these films as actual possible reality - the story of ordinary girl meets Prince, falls in love, live happily ever after!

I share a love of Julie Andrews films, even though for a long time my childhood self refused to accept that Fraulein Maria and Miss Poppins were played by the same actress (they have different coloured hair!!!).

I used to dream of having a dress like the one Leisl wears in "Sixteen going on Seventeen" but now I'm a bit older I simply love every outfit worn by the Baroness, especially the party dress with that amazing puff of superfluous tulle!

Emma (the one with Gwyneth Paltrow); Titanic (Kate's dresses!); Amadeus (weird, but I would totally dress like an 18th century lord if I could); and Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Admittedly, these are somewhat beyond my youth, but what can I say, I'm a late bloomer.

Oh, Pretty Woman and Clueless! Looooved the outfits. I remember channeling Cher and Dionne back in middle school/early high school. Also, Grease. I wanted pretty much every outfit in that movie. Selena was another movie with great costuming in my book. There's a scene where she's wearing jeans, a white button up shirt tied at the mid riff and that red lipstick... I totally copied that look.

The whole wardrobe of the countess in the Sound of Music stands out to me. She always looked so polished and elegant. Audrey Hepburn always figures in there too. That black dress from Breakfast at Tiffanys. The white ballgown with the black embroidery in Sabrina, quite a few from Funny Face. Of course, there is THAT green dress from Atonement.

Clueless and Sleeping Beauty are great! The dresses in Shakespeare in Love--particularly Viola's yellow number in which she met the queen--had me enamored as an eight year old. My mom and I also always loved Belle's yellow dress in The Beauty and the Beast. Perhaps I have a subconscious thing for smart girls in yellow frocks!

The first costumes that really caught my attention when I was young were not from a movie, but from the TV show "Dark Shadows"- all the flowing chiffony gowns you got to wear when you became a ghost or vampire. I yearned to be ethereal, which seemed to be a great thing to aspire to when one was 11 with greasy skin and pimples. I did get my mother to make my confirmation dress look just like the one worn by one of the characters.

A few years later, I saw "My Fair Lady" and loved it! Oh, that Ascot hat! And the ball gowns- just gorgeous. Don't forget that lovely frothy pink chiffon frock Audrey Hepburn wore in last scenes. I spent a lot of time drawing ladies in lovely Edwardian gowns and wishing that our High School would do "My Fair Lady", so that I could be Eliza. (No such luck.)

I've been thinking about this and realised that I had so, so many of these growing up! Among some I loved were: Buffy's prom dress from the Buffy film (with Luke Perry), Natalie Wood's outfits in Rebel Without a Cause, Dorothy's gingham dress/red shoes combo in The Wizard of Oz, Chacha's dress from the dance in Grease, Tia's outfits in Uncle Buck and (one someone else has already mentioned), the floaty southern looks in Fried Green Tomatoes.

This is going farther back than anyone here, I think, but I loved Betty Anderson's clothes on Father Knows Best. Not a week went by when Betty didn't get to wear a beautiful formal, with a big crinoline and a matching chiffon stole. ,Also, the costumes on Mickey Mouse Club and (oh the embarrassment) Lawrence Welk. And all those variety shows with dancers, and the westerns with saloon girls in feathers and schoolmarms in calico and bonnets.

I'm a little schizo when it comes to the movie dresses (of all time). However, from my childhood and before...

1) Any of Grace Kelly's outfits in Rear Window. I still watch that movie for the fashion (and because it's one of the best Hitchcocks). I especially love the black and white dress and the green and white suit.2) Buffy's dress at the end of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie... at the dance. 3) I loved (and still do) most of the outfits in Valley Girl. I also loved Nick Cage's wardrobe in that movie as well. Yes, I'm an 80s/90s child. 4) Not from my childhood, but one the best wardrobes on film is Nicole Kidman's in The Others. Super fashion love!

There are others I'm definitely forgetting. Oh, and my childhood best friend (who was about 5'11" at 12) looked just like Julia Roberts and had that polka-dot dress. I always love that dress and hat, too!

I was in love with Lesley Ann Warren's rags in "Rodgers and Hammerstien's Cinderella" - oddly, I hated her ballgown! I think I wore a bright orange bandana for a good month or so after the first viewing, it being the only piece of her outfit I could immitate.

I had a purple dress when I was really small that looked identical to one worn by the girl who played Mary Lenox in the Hallmark "Secret Garden." I literally destroyed it from too much wear! Apparently such dresses are not a good for gardening as that movie led me to believe.

I adore the Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady dresses too. As a kid whose parents are old movie junkies, I wanted anything Ginger Rogers wore (floaty with feathers) and the 1920's glamour gowns in Singing in the Rain.

Some fashion faves: Audrey's dress in the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's is a top pick (also loved how she wore a man's tuxedo shirt as her nightgown!)...Marilyn Monroe's bombshell gown in Gentlement Prefer Blondes...Any and all of Scarlett O'Hara's costumes...

...Also always dreamed of puffed sleeves and meeting Gilbert Blythe - nice to see some other folks also shared the childhood fascination! : )

Oh my goodness - when I was growing up, I must have watched Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window about 10 times on television. Grace Kelly's gorgeous party dress with a black v-shaped bodice, nipped waist, full tea-length white tulle or chiffon skirt was just exquisite and became a huge inspiration to me. Even the accessories were amazingly perfect, from her pearl necklace to her shoulder wrap to her black high heel shoes - all to die for, lol!

I wish I could find a pattern that might allow me to duplicate that dress some day.

this was such a fun post! Everything in Pretty Woman, especially the purple diner dress. I still can't believe I didn't buy the knockoff from Victoria's Secret when I had the figure. And Rear Window, with that humongous pegnoir in that tiny little case...a total fantasy.

I always loved costume dramas and watched a lot of AMC back when the classic films were all film-noir, musicals and the like from the 30's 40's and 50's. I love pretty much all the clothes from "Funny Face" - it's one of my favorite Audrey Hepburn films, mostly because it has Fred Astaire in it, too. I loved the dresses in "White Christmas", especially the black one that Rosemary Clooney wears at the Carousel Club. As a teen, "Pretty in Pink" was pretty much where I was, especially with my thrift-store and vintage wardrobe, though I must confess that "Desperately Seeking Susan" made me want to have an awesome jacket like Madonna's and drove me to paint on a jean jacket to try to achieve a similar look.

I also loved the Mary Poppins dress and the Sleeping Beauty colour changing dress. I also used to love the fancy dress that Geena Davis wears in Cutthroat Island (the best pirate film of all time) when she is trying to be a lady. I wanted to be a pirate when I was little (and maybe still do!)

big big fan of alice in wonderland. I am such a sucker for pinnies! Little house on the praries, i loved laura ingles dresses. Mary poppins white dress. And the green and white garden dress from gone with the wind.